Optical disc apparatus

An optical disc apparatus comprising:

• a main chassis;
• a disc tray that slides in a reciprocating fashion with respect to the main chassis to admit and eject an optical disc;
• a traverse chassis that is supported on the main chassis so as to be movable up and down;
• an optical head that is arranged on the traverse chassis so as to be slidable and that records data to or plays back data from the optical disc by irradiating the optical disc with laser light;
• and
• a drive motor that is fixed to the main chassis and that generates a drive force for making the disc tray slide, for making the optical head slide, and for making the traverse chassis move up and down,
• wherein the disc tray has, on a bottom surface thereof,
• a tray rack that receives the drive force of the drive motor and
• a guide groove that serves as a coordinating mechanism,
• wherein the optical head
• slides in a reciprocating fashion between an inner edge and an outer edge of the optical disc, and
• has a slide rack that receives the drive force of the drive motor,
• the slide rack having
• a rack boss that protrudes from a top surface of the slide rack and
• a projection portion that protrudes from a surface opposite to a rack,
• wherein the traverse chassis has
• a slide boss that integrally protrudes from a front surface thereof,
• an optical disc drive mechanism that clamps the optical disc and that makes the optical disc rotate,
• a first gear having, joined together coaxially side by side in an axial direction,
• a large-gear portion that meshes with a pinion gear fitted to an output shaft of the drive motor,
• a small-gear portion, and
• a pinion-gear portion that meshes with the slide rack,
• the first gear being pivoted on the traverse chassis, and
• a second gear that is pivoted on the traverse chassis and that meshes with the small-gear portion of the first gear,
• wherein the main chassis has
• a tray gear that is pivoted on the main chassis, that meshes with the second gear, and that meshes with the tray rack,
• a cam slider having
• a cam slider rack that is supported on the main chassis so as to be slidable and that meshes with the tray gear,
• a cam groove that engages with the slide boss of the traverse chassis and that has a groove having a step formed therein,
• a vertical boss that engages with the guide groove of the disc tray, and
• a trigger guide that engages with the latch boss of the slide rack and that has a bent shape,
• the cam slider sliding in a direction perpendicular to a slide direction of the disc tray,
• a stopper member having
• a rotary shaft that is pivoted on the main chassis so as to be rotatable,
• a resiliently biased member that resiliently biases the rotary shaft in a circumferential direction, and
• a lever portion and a lock portion that are arranged away from each other in an axial direction of the rotary shaft and that extend in different tangential directions, and
• a latch portion that protrudes from a bottom part of the main chassis and that engages with the projection portion,
• wherein, as the cam slider slides, the traverse chassis moves up and down between
• a clamping position where the optical disc drive mechanism clamps the optical disc admitted by the disc tray and
• a stand-by position where the traverse chassis does not interfere with sliding movement of the disc tray,
• wherein the stopper member is resiliently biased by the resiliently biasing member so as to rotate in such a direction that the lock portion makes contact with the cam slider, the stopper member is resiliently biased in such a direction that the lock portion makes contact with the cam slider, so that the stopper member moves between
• a locking position where the lock portion makes contact with a side surface of the cam slider to restrict sliding movement of the cam slider and
• an unlocking position to which, as the optical head slides toward the inner edge of the optical disc, the stopper member moves as a result of the lever portion rotating by being pushed by the projection portion and where the lock portion makes contact with a bottom surface of the cam slider to leave the cam slider free to slide, and
• wherein, when the traverse chassis is in the clamping position, the stopper member is in the locking position and, as the traverse chassis moves to the stand-by position, the optical head moves toward the inner edge of the optical disc so that the projection portion of the slide rack pushes the lever portion to make the stopper member move to the unlocking position and the rack boss engages with and slides together with the trigger guide to make the cam slider such that the drive force is transmitted with a result that the traverse chassis moves down to make the projection portion engage with the latch portion and thereby restrict sliding movement of the optical head.